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Sara Sanders Gardner's work in the disability field began in 2001, and includes creating and directing an internationally recognized neurodiversity educational college program at Bellevue College in Washington State, U.S., and designing and delivering Neurodiversity Cultural Responsiveness live training workshops for Microsoft's Neurodiversity Hiring program since 2015, as well as e-Learning across 7 countries for Amazon Web Services, an Autism Management Institute for the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD), among many other institutions, universities, and corporations. Sara was thrilled to be engaged by Wiley Publishers as technical editor for the recently published "Neurodiversity for Dummies" and "Autism for Dummies" books. 

Sara's lived experience as an autistic person, along with their work with neurodivergent people, their families, colleagues and supervisors, including 10 years teaching neurodivergent students in college classes, gives Sara a unique insight into the communication and needs of this population as well as the strengths that they bring to their schools, work, and communities.  Connect on LinkedIn

As an autistic individual navigating a career for 35 years, Sara has the lived experience to understand and communicate the subject matter. As an autistic disability professional who has worked in the field for over 25 years, Sara has experience learning about and working with thousands of unique autistic, neurodivergent, and otherwise disabled individuals and their families, faculty, supervisors, and colleagues. 

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Neurodiversity Cultural Responsiveness content includes a social justice perspective that encompasses neurodivergent communication in context, barriers faced by neurodivergent people, and a conversation about Neurodivergent culture. Viewed through a social justice lens, we examine accommodations, impacts of disability, and the convergence of communication styles. Attendees leave with a better understanding of interactions with all colleagues, including but not limited to neurodivergent colleagues.  

Advanced training workshops are also available to delve deeper into topics or answer specific questions. Workshops designed for Human Resources, Public Safety, Student Leaders, or other team-specific topics are available. Please inquire!

Q1) Why do you use the word "autistic"? Isn't "person with autism" better?

A2) As an autistic person myself, I use identity first language almost exclusively. Others may decide that person-first language is more comfortable for them, however, the disabled person should be the one to ultimately decide how they wish to be defined. 

Q2) Does the neurodivergent co-worker attend the workshop? (for corporations)

A2) It depends. If it's a new hire, sometimes the workshop is held prior to their starting date. However, many neurodivergent employees have attended these workshops with overwhelmingly positive responses to the material. If they do attend, they can add to the conversation. It should be up to them, of course. Similarly, in a classroom setting, neurodivergent students can attend and add to the conversation. 

Q3) What qualifies you to do this training? 

A3) In addition to developing and launching Microsoft's team training for their Autism (now Neurodiversity) at Work initiatve during which I trained over 4000 employees, and providing e-Learning to over 5000 Amazon Web Services employees worldwide, I've worked in higher education for 15 years. There, I designed, developed, and still direct one of the first, largest and very few Neurodiversity support programs designed by an Autistic person. Not only have I directed the program, I was faculty in the program for 10 years, and also served at the College as a Disability Access Specialist for 7 years. Prior to that, I had 10 years of hands-on experience with families and youth in IEP meetings and teaching parenting classes. I also have an adult autistic child, and was raised in an autistic family. The depth and breadth of my experience is hard to match. I'd love to connect on LinkedIn.

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